Thought Networking

people weren't necessarily people

The Indian Removal Bill, including the Five Civilized Tribes, was favored by President Andrew Jackson who made it the law of the land. Whites now had a chance at Indian lands. 

An earlier reference to Jackson here.

Senior and Junior

An earlier reference to Jr here.

blues, greys, white

Gerhard Richter [born 1932], Seestück Welle, 1969

An earlier reference to Richter here.

razor

Lucio Fontana [1899-1968], Coupure.

Sold at Christie's for $2.7 million in 2006.

Côte de boeuf with Béarnaise sauce

According to Gary Rhodes [born 1960]:

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6.

2. Season the beef with salt and pepper to taste and heat a little olive oil in an ovenproof pan or roasting tin. Add the beef to the pan and fry until golden-brown on both sides.

3. Transfer the beef to the hot oven and cook for 10 minutes.

4. When the beef is cooked, cover with aluminium foil and leave to rest in a warm place for 5-8 minutes.

5. Mix together the tarragon, lemon juice and béarnaise sauce.

6. Serve the steaks hot with the béarnaise sauce and watercress on the side.

Source here.

liquefied lettuce

Jeremy Clarkson [born 1960] has stopped drinking. This is a big deal because, as he's explained in the past, he drinks a lot. Story here:

On my recent holiday I would have two beers before lunch, a bottle of rosé with it, a banana daiquiri for pudding, a snooze in the afternoon, four rum punches before dinner, another bottle of wine with that and then some piña coladas to get me in the mood for more sleeping.

being who he wants to be

"The inside of my mind looks like Denzel's back in Glory."
- Dave Chappelle [born 1973] on never having done a hard day's labor and that all his life's work has been psychological and emotional.

high-speed slow-motion

Rich

When he was about 30, Michelangelo deposited 900 gold Ducats into his bank account, which exceeded what his contemporary Leonardo da Vinci would earn over his entire lifetime.

An earlier reference to Michelangelo here.

His literary beginnings were full of failures and wrong turns

George Orwell's essays and articles here.

An earlier reference to Orwell here.

7

"My Indian friends they always speak about the seventh generation. They say you should do nothing in the land that is not good for the seventh generation."

- Novelist and Conservationist Peter Matthiessen [born 1927]

Image source here.

saṃsāra

"So much time to question oneself is not good."

"Your shame will be your torture; your torture will be your life." 

- Brad Pitt in developmental stages as Austrian mountaineer and onetime SS Nazi Heinrich Harrer in 7 Years in Tibet.

breathable cocktail

A London bar where you walk into a cloud of gin and tonic. "If you think of what you do in a bar you might spend 40 minutes per drink, so we've calibrated the mixology to account for that much," says bar cofounder Sam Bompas. Punters are advised to don special protective suits to avoid going home smelling like a distillery. Tickets, priced £5, are available for hourly slots from www.jellymongers.co.uk.

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handsome, charming, confident

Gates of Hell, 1996

Chuck Connelly [born 1955] alienated the influential and his career and perhaps mental health have not yet recovered. Sullen, angry, hostile. From Pittsburgh, Andy Warhol remains his idol. 

An earlier reference to Warhol here.

"I think that most people think painters are kind of ridiculous, you know?"

Roy Lichtenstein [1923-1997]

See Rosenquist here.

Wham Shazam

James Rosenquist [born 1933], World's Fair Mural, 1964.

"The opposite of reverential art. Not high-minded. Solemn art was a turn off."

closest relative

"Humans can receive blood transfusions from Chimpanzees but Chimpanzees cannot receive blood transfusions from Gorillas."
- Alastair Fothergill [born 1960]

BMX

Inflection Point

"The inevitable part of every inflection point is the valley of death -- the hostile landscape through which you and your company must struggle or else perish."

- Intel's Andy Grove on managing through unknown territory.

An earlier reference to Grove here.

last great hope for Indian independence

Excerpt from Tecumseh’s speech to the Osages in the winter of 1811-1812:

Brothers, When the white men first set foot on our grounds, they were hungry; they had no place on which to spread their blankets, or to kindle their fires. They were feeble; they could do nothing for themselves. Our father commiserated their distress, and shared freely with them whatever the Great Spirit had given his red children. They gave them food when hungry, medicine when sick, spread skins for them to sleep on, and gave them grounds, that they might hunt and raise corn.

Brothers the white people came among us feeble, and now we have made them strong, they wish to kill us, or drive us back, as they would wolves and panthers.

public service

A related photo here.

Google Zurich

45 photos here.

An earlier reference to Google here.

observer

Ben Johnson, Seoul Olympics, 1988. Captured by the father of Canadian photojournalism Ted Grant.

"If you can see it you can shoot it."

An earlier reference to photography here.

694

Canaletto [1697-1768], Regatta on the Grand Canal

Every year since it was decreed in 1315, there has been a regatta on the Grand Canal.

An earlier reference to Venice here.

leadership

"In this movie, a new commander is called in to straighten out the unruly squadron of fliers who had become undisciplined to the point of self destruction...[He demonstrates] the determination necessary to undertake the hard, unpleasant and treacherous task of leading a group of people through an excruciatingly tough set of changes—the moment when a leader decides to go forward, no matter what."

- Andy Grove, Only the Paranoid Survive, 1997, p.81

An earlier reference to Grove here.

“In the event of Moon disaster”

July 20, 1969

The speech Nixon would have made if Neil Armstrong had died on the moon here.

super-potent cannabis

"The average psychotic cannabis user is more likely to use skunk.”

"One preliminary study compared cannabis users with just tetrahydrocannabinol [THC] in their hair samples - typical of skunk use - and those with both cannabidiol [CBD] and THC, which showed that they were smoking old-fashioned cannabis. Those with just THC were more likely to show psychotic symptoms. Another preliminary study showed that CBD seemed to have some effect when given as an antipsychotic, and could even block the effects of THC."
- Professor Robin Murray is a consultant psychiatrist at the Institute of Psychiatry and leading researcher into the effects of cannabis on mental health

“I would err on the side of caution. There is still not enough known about skunk but the evidence suggests that it can trigger psychotic symptoms in susceptible individuals."
- Dr Paul Broks, MSc, DPhil, CPsychol, Neuropsychologist

A look at skunk here and here.

denial

Charlie Chaplin, 1915

"As late as 1931, Charlie Chaplin was still fighting the move to sound. In an interview that year, he proclaimed 'I give the talkies six months more.' Chaplin's powerful audience appeal and craftsmanship were such that he was able to make successful silent movies throughout the 1930s. However, even Charlie Chaplin couldn't hold out forever. Chaplin finally surrendered to spoken dialogue with The Great Dictator in 1940."

- Andy Grove illustrating an Inflection Point in Only the Paranoid Survive, 1997, p. 61

An earlier reference to Chaplin here.

An earlier reference to Grove here.

what a blast

"The only real power comes out of a long rifle."
- Joseph Stalin [1878-1953]; an earlier reference to Stalin here.

"When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains, and the women come out to cut up what remains, jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains and go to your gawd like a soldier."
- Rudyard Kipling [1865-1936]; an earlier reference to Kipling here.

inventory

David Teniers the Younger [1610-1690], Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in His Picture Gallery, 1653.

"Teniers was the Flemish court painter, as Rubens had been previously, building up his collection with paintings bought from the dismembered collection of the executed Charles I of England. In this painting there are recognizable pictures by Titian, Reni, Bellini, Giorgione, Tintoretto, Veronese, Rubens, and others. It is a window into the new world of collecting that was developing. Royalty were competing all over Europe to outdo each other with the Old Masters they could buy."

- Roy Bolton

Caring for your introvert

The habits and needs of a little-understood group here.

NY

Flatiron Building New York City from Brian Przypek on Vimeo.

"painted not for money"

Salvator Rosa [1615-1673], Self-Portrait, c. 1645

The Latin on the plaque he holds says

"Keep silent unless what you have to say is better than silence."

"winning of America"

Unknown Artist, The Conquest of Tenochtitlán* [one of a narrative of eight scenes], 17th Century

Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and his cannon ships, horses and armour, defeated and afterwards repressed the spear-toting, human sacrificing Aztecs in 1519.

The imperial power of the Incas was broken in 1532.

* from the most important historical series in Mexican art

An earlier reference to 1532 here.

Horses

John Everett Millais [1829-1896], Francisco Pizarro seizing the Inca Emperor Atahuallpa, 1846

The most dramatic moment in European-Native American relations

was the first encounter between the Inca emperor Atahuallpa and Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro at the Peruvian highland town of Cajamatca on November 16, 1532. Atahuallpa was absolute monarch of the largest and most advanced state in the New World, while Pizarro represented the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V [also known as King Charles I of Spain], monarch of the most powerful state in Europe. Pizarro, leading a ragtag group of 168 Spanish soldiers, was in unfamiliar terrain, ignorant of the local inhabitants, completely out of touch with the nearest Spaniards [1,000 miles to the north in Panama] and far beyond the reach of timely reinforcements. Atahuallpa was in the middle of his down empire of millions of subjects and immediately surrounded by his army of 80,000 soldiers, recently victorious in a war with other Indians. Nevertheless, Pizarro captured Atahuallpa within a few minutes after the two leaders first set eyes on each other. Pizarro proceeded to hold his prisoner for eight months, while extracting history's largest ransom in return for a promise to free him. After the ransom—enough gold to fill a room 22 feet long by 17 feet wide to a height of over 8 feet—was delivered, Pizarro reneged on his promise and executed Atahuallpa.

Atahuallpa's capture was decisive for the European conquest of the Inca Empire.

Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel, 1997, p.68

An earlier reference to Diamond here.

A Man Drinking

Annibale Carracci [1560-1609], c. 1581-84 

"Acting the part of the aristocratic courtier painter was what Carracci hated, and it was this lifestyle that led to his mental breakdown." Roy Bolton

Wine Cellar

LA

The East Side of Los Angeles on a Sunny Day from clark vogeler on Vimeo.

spiritual guide

Xu Xi [1020-1090] member of the Sung Dynasty's Imperial Academy for sixty years and regarded as one of China's greatest landscape artists. 

Looking at this ink representation "was an act of meditation, bringing the viewer to a state closer to Buddha. The Chan sect of Buddhism, the largest at the time ... said that rituals and religious study were a waste of time. Buddha existed in everyone and could be reached by meditating. In the highest state of meditation you could see the 'Absolute Principle' of all life. Meditating on nature, or art that represented the unity of nature, was a way to do this."

- Roy Bolton

Kaizen

An Amsterdam diamond polisher looks at the diamond through a lupe before polishing.

Kaizen is a Japanese word meaning, roughly, continuous, gradual improvement as in the polishing of a diamond.

three

Ayae Takahashi, ISE Cultural Foundation. Husband Harvard psychiatrist here.

ethical

The top 99 ethical companies in the world here. One Canadian company made the list.

creative destruction

Schumpeter at Harvard, 1940s

"But in capitalist reality as distinguished from its textbook picture, it is not [price] competition which counts but the competition from the new commodity, the new technology, the new source of supply, the new type of organization ... competition which commands a decisive cost or quality advantage and which strikes not at the margins of the profits and the outputs of the existing firms but at their foundations and their very lives."
- Joesph A. Schumpeter [1883-1950], Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, 1942, who inspired Intel co-founder and President Andy Grove [born 1936], who was more essential to the high-tech revolution than Bill Gates[born 1955], Steve Jobs [born 1955], Larry Ellison [born 1944]  and others according to Mark Andreessen [born 1971].

An earlier reference to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs here. Another reference to Jobs here.

hang ten

The artist Thomas Campbell [born 1969] surfs many different media — from painting to documentary film. His studio in Santa Cruz, Calif., is strategically located for easy access to great waves. NYT.

Tony Hawk [born 1968] is a fan.

http://www.thomascampbell-art.com

good

Primatologist Jane Goodall talks about her work here. As Stephen Jay Gould said, "Jane Goodall's work with chimpanzees represents one of the Western world's greatest scientific achievements."

Tokyo

poet

"If you are squeamish
don't prod the beach rubble."
- Sappho [~630-570 BCE]

flat

The Council House is a form of public or social housing in the United Kingdom.

statistic

Twice as many people commit suicide annually as are killed in homicide.

early photos

In 1925, $0.25 had the purchasing power of about $3. More early photographs here.

summer

Édouard Manet [1823-1883], Monet Painting on his Boat, 1874.

Monet had fitted up a small houseboat where he could work in peaceful isolation amidst all the colorful elements of nature he sought to record. When the sun got too hot, he stretched an awning from the cabin amidships to the small mast aft. Manet twice painted his friend at work in his floating studio; this is the brighter and livelier version. Seen sharply in profile in the foreground, wearing yellow flannel trousers and a white shirt with a dark tie, Monet paints the landscape in front of him. His wife Camille is seated in the doorway of the cabin.

- Albert Skira, Impressionism After 1873, 1959, p.34 

An earlier reference to Monet here.

mimicking nature

"The best engineering mimics nature."

- Dean Kamen [born 1951]

An earlier reference to Kamen here.

Kiro News

The finest new source for pretend doctors here.

An earlier reference to chiropractors here.

Left Brain

"Crazy. Random. Weird. Beyond formula. But structured." is the self-described thinking of Conan O'Brien [born 1963] and his most successful writers.

Earlier references to O'Brien here and here.

wound seriously

"That which does not kill us makes us stronger."
- Friedrich Nietzsche

but

That which does not kill us can also leave us maimed and ruined for life.

An earlier reference to Nietzsche here.

remind

James Lynch [born 1956], The Yellow Field, egg tempera on gesso

If the world were a village of 100 people

More here.

psychology

In his run for the Presidency against Herbert Hoover in 1932, on economics Franklin D. Roosevelt

had a breezy and disconcerting ability to put forward contradictory policies without the slightest embarrassment. So while he pledged to increase federal relief for unemployment, supported higher tariffs, government development of power projects, increased regulation of securities markets, and the separation of commercial and investment banking, he also criticized Hoover for fiscal extravagance, accused him of encouraging inflation, and promised to balance the budget and commit himself to "sound money." But voters did not care about consistency, they wanted bold action. In November 1932, Roosevelt got 22.8 million votes against Hoover's 15.7 million, the greatest electoral sweep since Lincoln beat McClellan in 1864.

- Liaquat Ahamed, Lords of Finance, 2009, p. 442

F.D.R. ranks 3rd best out of 42 Presidents; Hoover ranks 34th. Details here. 

An earlier reference to F.D.R. here.